FREIHOFER’S JAZZ FESTIVAL, SPAC, 6/23/07

A lot of jazz for a lot of different folks
By GREG HAYMES
Staff writer

SARATOGA SPRINGS â€¦ Funk veterans Tower of Power capped off Day One of Freihofer’s Jazz
Festival on Saturday by churning out their usual horn-fueled, sweat ‘n’ soul hits (“So Very
Hard to Go,” “Oakland Stroke” and “You Ought to Be Having Fun”), paying tribute to the
Godfather of Soul (saxman Emilio Castillo’s heartfelt rendition of “I’ll Still Be Diggin’ on
James Brown”) and asking the eternal musical question, “What Is Hip?”

At the Saratoga Performing Arts Center on Saturday, it seemed as though nearly everything
was hip. There was a very hip French violinist, Jean-Luc Ponty, who turned in a dazzling
mid-afternoon performance.
Also hip was the Israeli-born clarinetist Anat Cohen, who earned cheers for her bluesy,
klezmer-tinged ballad “The Purple Piece” and her offbeat rendition of Fats Waller’s
“Jitterbug Waltz.”

Hip didn’t have anything to do with age, either. Opening the gazebo stage was the
23-year-old brilliant bassist and multilingual vocalist Esperanza Spalding, who bookended her
set with standards and in between dished up breezy bossa novas.

At the other end of the spectrum, Roy Haynes must be the Dorian Gray of the jazz world. It
was hard to believe the nimble, inventive drummer was 82.

Even little kids were surprisingly hip, as they proved when they paraded out of the
audience and onto the stage to scat sing with saxman Hayes Greenfield and his band
Jazz-A-Ma-Tazz on “I Love Bebop.” It was the first time that the SPAC fest had included a
jazz performer geared toward children, but the adults in the crowd seemed to be having just as
much fun listening to a bop rendition of the theme from “The Flintstones.”

Neo-soul diva India.Arie made up for her disastrous performance in ’03 with one that got
the crowd dancing to anthems of independence like “Hope” and “I Choose.”

And, of course, there were the regulars. Both saxman David Sanborn and guitarist-vocalist
George Benson made their 10th appearances at the 30-year-old fest.

Hip was what you made of it on Saturday â€¦ a little funky, a little soulful, a little
soaring, a little mournful and a whole lotta sparkling jazz.

Greg Haymes can be reached at 454-5742 or by e-mail at ghaymes@timesunion.com.